Classical Cabaret with JSO "All Stars"
February 8 at 7 PM
February
9 at 7:30 PM
February
10 at 3 PM
JSO Performing Arts Center
215 W. Michigan Ave, Jackson, Michigan
Tickets available at (517) 782-3221, 215 W. Michigan Ave. Jackson, MI
(scroll down for program notes by Dr. Bruce Brown)
You are invited to hear the amazing talent of the JSO All-Stars, principal players with the orchestra, who will be performing "Classical Cabaret." Held in the intimate and elegant setting of the JSO's downtown Performing Arts Center, everyone in the audience will have the opportunity to get up close and personal with the musicians. Sponsored by Consumers Energy, this concert is offered at three different times: 7 p.m. Friday, February 8; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 9; 3 p.m. Sunday, February 10.
Principal flutist Richard Sherman and Pianist A Ram Lee will perform Richard Strauss’s Flute Sonata, a dramatic and expansive work that often seems more like an orchestral concerto, or even an opera, than a piece for two performers. The music, originally written as a sonata for violin and piano in 1887-88, has been brilliantly adapted by flutist Emmanuel Pahud into a dazzling tour de force for flute. The equally-challenging piano part sounds almost orchestral, and after this sonata, Strauss would turn almost exclusively to symphonic and operatic works. The sonata is his last major piece of chamber music.
In the spring of 1784, Mozart chose an unprecedented combination of instruments for his 
Quintet for Piano and Winds, which will be performed by pianist Brad Blackham, oboist Sarah Southard, clarinetist Andrew Sprung, bassoonist Steve Newton, and Stephen Foster, horn. After the premiere performance, at the Emperor’s Imperial Court Theater in Vienna, Mozart wrote to his father “I consider it the best thing I have written as yet in all my life. It has met with extraordinary success.” True to form, he had put the finishing touches on the music just two days earlier! Twelve years later, Mozart’s music inspired Beethoven to write a quintet for the same group of instruments, his Opus 16, but most observers feel he was unable to surpass Mozart’s model.
Concertmaster Xie Min, violinist Ji Hyun Kim, violist Clyde McKaney, and cellist Daniel Thomas will perform Beethoven's String Quartet #4, one of a group of six quartets written between 1798 and 1800 and dedicated to Beethoven’s patron Prince Lobkowitz. Beethoven’s string quartets, especially the ones written near the end of his life, are considered some of the most sublime music ever written, which is all the more remarkable because his deafness was advancing even while he was writing these early quartets. Beethoven wrote page after page of revisions as he labored on his first six quartets, but no sketches have ever been found for the fourth, which is also the only one in a minor key. Experts wonder if he based it on music he had written earlier, or perhaps composed it in a unique single burst of creativity.
Complimentary light refreshments are included in the ticket price. Due to the smaller venue, tickets are limited. Individual tickets are $18-Section C, $27-Section B, and $32-Section A. Tickets may be ordered online at the JSO’s website www.jacksonsymphony.org, box office 517-782-3221, or in person at 215 W. Michigan Ave., Jackson.
JSO concert ticket holders are invited to attend the complimentary and highly acclaimed pre-concert lecture series hosted by Dr. Brown. Called Backstage Glimpses, February's lectures take place one hour prior to each of the concerts. Carol and John Isles are sponsoring February's Backstage Glimpse.
NOTE: The Jackson Symphony Orchestra is a community resource providing performances of the classics and popular music, a community music school with private and group instruction and numerous educational programs for students of all ages. The organization owns a 30,000-square-foot facility in the heart of downtown Jackson which not only serves as an administrative, rehearsal, and recital performance space for the orchestra but also is home to the Jackson Youth Symphony, the Jackson Chorale and Children's Choir, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival and JSO Community String Ensemble. The orchestra primarily performs at the world-class Music Hall of the Jackson Community College Potter Center and other venues in town including several churches, the County Fairgrounds and Michigan Theatre.
Program Notes
February 8-10
By Composer in Residence
Bruce Brown
The JSO’s February concert, a unique “Classical Cabaret,” will shine a spotlight on star performers in the orchestra as well as the JSO’s newly-renovated, state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center in the heart of Jackson.
The JSO’s Sound Vision fundraising campaign was a resounding success despite one of the most daunting economic climates in memory! The success of the Sound Vision campaign will help the orchestra continue its innovative education and service programs for the people of Jackson for many years to come. The campaign also made possible the renovation of the downtown facility into a beautiful, versatile performance space, as well as an ideal setting for the community music school and JSO offices.
The “Classical Cabaret” will invite the people of Jackson to see this world-class facility in an up close and personal way, to experience its excellent acoustics, and to experience an intimate encounter with some of the JSO’s finest performers.
Flute Sonata
Principal flutist Richard Sherman and pianist A Ram Lee will perform Richard Strauss’s Flute Sonata, a dramatic and expansive work that often seems more like an orchestral concerto, or even an opera, than a piece for two performers.
The music, originally written as a sonata for violin and piano in 1887-88, has been brilliantly adapted by flutist Emmanuel Pahud into a dazzling tour de force for flute. The equally-challenging piano part often sounds like an orchestral score that has been compressed to fit the keyboard – just barely! Pahud is an international superstar of the flute, performing as many as 160 concerts a year all over the world. In 1992, at age 22, he became the principal flutist and youngest member of the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic.
Strauss wrote other chamber music very early in his career, including a string quartet and a sonata for cello and piano, but his ebullient musical style was always conceived on a very large scale. His works just seem to fit the full-throated sound of the orchestra, usually a very large one!
Strauss wrote this sonata at roughly the same time as his symphonic fantasy Aus Italien and the huge orchestral tone poem Don Juan. The sonata was his last major piece of chamber music, and from that point onward, he turned his attention almost exclusively to symphonic and operatic works.
Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Winds, K 452
Mozart chose an unprecedented combination of instruments for his Quintet for Piano and Winds, which will be performed by pianist Brad Blackham, oboist Jan Eberle, clarinetist Andrew Sprung, bassoonist Steve Newton, and horn player Stephen Foster.
The music was completed on March 30, 1874, just two days before the premiere at the Emperor’s Imperial Court Theater in Vienna. Two brand new piano concertos, his fifteenth and sixteenth, were also unveiled in this epic concert. Mozart always wrote quickly (and he never minded cutting things close!) but the pace in this period was certainly furious, even for him. He wrote four concertos and this quintet between February 9th and the end of March!
After the performance, Mozart was so pleased with the quintet he wrote to his father: “[It] called forth the very greatest applause; I myself consider it to be the best work I have ever composed … How I wish you could have heard it! And how beautifully it was performed! Well, to tell the truth, I was really worn out in the end after playing so much – and it is greatly to my credit that my listeners never got tired.”
Mozart’s music inspired Beethoven to write a quintet for the same group of instruments, his Opus 16, but most observers feel he was unable to surpass Mozart’s model.
String Quartet in C minor, Opus 18, #4
Concertmaster Xie Min, violinist Ji Hyun Kim, violist Clyde McKaney, and cellist Daniel Thomas will perform Beethoven's String Quartet #4, one of a group of six quartets written between 1798 and 1800 and dedicated to Beethoven’s patron Prince Lobkowitz.
Beethoven and some of his friends first performed the six new quartets on a unique set of instruments given to him by Prince Karl Lichnowsky, another one of his patrons. The set included a Guarneri violin, an Amati violin, and a Guarneri cello!
The string quartets of Beethoven, especially those written near the end of his life, are considered some of the most sublime music ever created. This fact is all the more remarkable because his deafness was already advancing when he wrote these early pieces.
Beethoven wrote page after page of revisions as he labored on his opus 18 quartets. Surprisingly, no sketches have ever been found for the fourth, which is also the only one in a minor key. It is also likely that “the fourth” was actually the last one of the set to be composed. Experts wonder if he based it on music he had written earlier, or perhaps composed it in a unique, single burst of creativity.